Surface prep

I remember sitting in my composites class the semester before my last at WSU. It was a small class about 12 of us all told. John’s was lecturing on theories of adhesion – why things stick together. John’s is a character, old, bald and tubby – kinda mean, kinda smug, funny. I liked him, others hated him, and there were days that I hated him to. But he was a good story teller, and that goes a long way. He was talking about mechanical theories of adhesion, how when gluing surfaces together people would leave the surfaces on the rougher side so the glue could flow, so it could get into nooks and crannies and burrow deeper into that which it was going to bond. And then it was discovered that if you could get things smooth – really smooth, and clean, your bond strength would be even better than that of a rough surface. And that reminded me of a day in the lab when we were testing surface finishes on little blocks. Blocks which had been sanded, and polished and lapped to a mirror finish. Stupid smooth. So smooth that if you put one block on top of another, and left it – it would be stuck together. And when you pulled them apart they would pull parts of their neighbor out – leaving a pitted surface behind. So smooth that enough atoms began sharing enough electrons causing the metals to became fused in areas.

I was hiking and I could see the corners of my Chucks peeling away from the canvas – I need to glue them. The hold will be that much better and stronger if I clean them well, remove all the dirt and grime, and old glue. Clean the rubber down to rubber, clean the canvas down to canvas. Only then can I get a good bond, and the bond’s strength depends on much more too. How long did the glue set? Was it held tight?

And as I sat over looking a blue river, I realized that life is often that way. If you want a good bond – you have to do surface prep. You’ve got to get down to base materials and make connections there. I now lots of people that I’m glued to thru shallow things. Bond’s that don’t last – that fail. I know several people that I’m glued to at deeper levels.

And I realized when a bond fails, when the glue no longer holds, all that too must be cleaned out if you are ever going to glue anything back.

So here I was feeling all very smart and wise upon my hill – that’s what these last few months have been Neil – surface prep. God’s working on you – cleaning out old glue, surface prep. It’s got to be done, even if you want to glue an old joint back together. You have to clean it out and start afresh. The cleaner, the smoother the better.


Mirror smooth.


Mirror smooth.


And then on my way down, my thinking flipped, my focus changed. I’m not sure where I first heard it, but somewhere the phrase – “a mirror reflecting the Glory of God” – there is something like it in 2nd Corinthians, a mirror reflecting the glory of God. I felt like the Karate Kid when he starts to understand why he’s been waxing. All this surface prep was not to prepare a joint for gluing but a surface for reflecting. Not that it is a great and shiny mirror. But the light that shines upon it is powerful and strong.

I have a friend who has often given out this rather good advice – “don’t focus on not being (fill in the blank) focus rather on being like Christ”

And that changes a lot of stuff, a lot of internal motives. Am I prepping a joint to be glued or polishing a mirror to reflect? Because one is primary, one is deeper, one is stronger, one is more important. The success of one depends on the other.

What is my main thrust? My primary goal? If I can only focus on one thing what will it be?


What is my joy? Where is my strength?




Mirror smooth . . .
















PS - a much more coherent explanation can be found in the first few pages of Chapter 9 in Pipers book "This Momentary Marriage" read it, I found it encouraging. Let me know what you think.